Trail of Regret
by Crystal Renee
Summary: SasuSaku Sad fic. Sasuke's back from Otogakure, his revenge is complete, but for some reason, he still feels empty.


Author's Note: Bah. Read it, okay?

_**Trail of Regret**_

Sasuke's eyes trailed over his form in the bathroom mirror, roughly fingering his neck over the curse seal. Each black comma was surrounded by an intricate design of seals Tsunade had placed over them. It'd been three months since he tapped into the power, and the thought of doing it any time soon made his stomach churn. There were few things that he regretted, and the curse seal embodied every one of them.

The curse seal had been what planted the undying thirst for power which tore him from his home village. It was what drew him away from rational thought when it came to avenging his family. And in the end, it was what always tore him away from _her_.

-------

_Sasuke felt his body collapsing. To think, he'd trained all this time just to fail now. It didn't seem right, or fair. He'd bridged the gap between them, but Itachi still reigned supreme. _

_"Over there!"_

_His body fell slack, landing roughly against someone's chest. _

_"Hinata, grab my pouch."_

_Blinking his eyes open a bit, Sasuke's blurred vision held onto pink locks of hair as he was lowered toward the ground, his head in the woman's lap as she directed everyone with a commanding tone. He felt lightheaded, forcing himself to focus on the fuzz pink locks of hair above him. _

_Her hands descended against his neck, and gentle felt for a pulse. He could barely feel the tickle it left on his skin; it frightened him. Was he really that close to dying?_

_"Oh, Sasuke-kun… you're a fool." She muttered, placing her palms onto his cheeks and rotating his head slightly to face her. "Can you hear me?"_

_He blinked open his eyes again as she flashed light over them. It was becoming harder to remain awake, he noted distantly. She made note to Hinata about his pupil dilation before placing her palms on top of his forehead. The faint, warm sensation of chakra beginning its healing process nipped at his skin, and the green glow accentuated against her sea green eyes._

_"Sakura…"_

_She bolted her attention off her hands and back at his half lidded gaze. Sasuke opened his mouth again when tears began to form in her eyes, but she silenced him with a shake of her head. _

_"Conserve your energy, Sasuke-kun. You have a long fight ahead of you." She muttered. "You're such an idiot."_

_Silence infiltrated the room as she worked her way down his body, healing serious injuries and helping Hinata bandage the rest. Sasuke fought to keep himself from nodding off to sleep as he regained feeling in his limbs. Hinata and Sakura communicated between the two of them, discussing his state in hushed voices. He couldn't pick up what they were saying._

_"Hinata, go after Naruto and the others. I'll be fine here alone."_

_Sasuke felt his body lifting off the ground, an arm draped desperately around her neck as she switched him to a sitting position and leaned him against a wall. Sakura leaned back on her knees, reaching for some antiseptic in the pouch on the ground nearby. He watched her methodical movements, the deliberate slowness she used to apply the antibacterial liquid to the wounds on his chest. _

_"You can't keep fighting alone."_

_He watched her instead of responding. _

_"Let us help you. You can't defeat Itachi on your own." She continued. "We're taking you back. You'll have time to think. If you know what's good for you, you'll let us help you instead of continually running further from what you want."_

_----------_

_"I'm sorry."_

_Sasuke's voice fell onto deaf ears as Sakura overlooked the river. The bridge brought back memories of earlier days, before he'd been tempted by Orochimaru's promises of strength and power. The times before he'd started pushing her away while she kept trying to get closer. These were the times he knew she understood him, and took that for granted._

_"One day, overusing the curse seal is going to kill you." Sakura said, turning her gaze back onto him._

_He watched her quietly as she leaned against the bridge railing, mentally calculating what she would say next. Sasuke was ready for whatever verbal whipping she could hand out; he had been the one who promised to stop using the curse seal, and he'd broken that promise. He'd lost control on his first mission allowed by Tsunade, and it had been a strict order that he not. _

_Sakura had kept his use of the dark power to herself, to keep him out of trouble._

_"The curse seal is far too hard on your body." She continued. "One day, you're going to do irreversible damage and you'll die."_

_"I know."_

_"Just promise me you won't do it again. You already know that you can't resort to that kind of power to defeat Itachi."_

-----------

It was raining, but Sasuke didn't stop walking down the street. He didn't mind the feeling of it pricking through his clothing. It was comforting when mixed with the sloshing sounds made by his feet. When it rained like this, he could be alone with his thoughts.

He had tried to make her hate him; he wanted her to hate him. Sakura was stubborn and stuck by his side no matter what he did to push her away. After a while, he'd noticed he didn't mind her company. He dropped his guard.

The rain was deafening as he rounded the corner into the forest. Every drop echoed off the trees, masking the sounds he was making under his breath.

When the stone monument came into view, so did Itachi's face in his mind.

---------

_"Sakura!"_

_She was falling._

_"Sakura!" _

_Itachi was dead._

_Sasuke scrambled forward, catching her roughly before she landed on the ground. Blood soaked his clothes upon the impact, flowing into the crevices of the ground created during battle. She felt cold, and he was shuddering. It was his fault, after all; he'd started drawing on the curse seals power, and she'd jumped in, knocked him away, and took Itachi's hit._

_He turned her head, rubbing his thumb gently over her cheeks as her tears escaped. She looked up at him, smiling._

_"Oh, Sasuke-kun, how could you do this to me?" she kept smiling. "All this time you pretend to hate me, and it's not until now that you show you care."_

_He couldn't speak. He was too busy crying. _

_"I don't want to see you like this."_

_"I'm sorry, Saku…"_

_"I'm happy I could do this for you."_

_He shook his head. Sasuke would have killed Itachi himself a million times over at that moment. There was no point in bringing her to a doctor; Sakura would have started healing herself if there had been a chance. She'd already lost too much blood. _

_"Why didn't I realize it sooner…?" he muttered._

_"I told you revenge wouldn't make you happy. I love you, Sasuke-kun."_

_Her eyes closed before he could return her words._

---------

Sasuke stared at Sakura's name in the monument, rerunning her death in his mind again, as he'd done so many times the book in his mind was beginning to fray. She'd died in his arms, after helping him reach his revenge. It was a turning point for him; Sasuke wondered how he couldn't have realized sooner that he'd always had what he wanted. He'd wasted his life, and hers, to try and hunt down a man who may have never come back into his life.

He missed her, and he hated himself for always pulling away when she was willing to wait, and loved him no matter what he did. She supported him. She sacrificed everything for him, but it wasn't until she was gone he realized how much she meant to him. That was what he regretted the most.

Leaning down to trace the characters with his finger, Sasuke sighed.

"Sakura, I'm sorry."

Author's Note: Review?


End file.
